Golden Hearted Green Sweaters
by forbrighterdays
Summary: There are no pleasant greetings exchanged, he can tell she’s pissed at him, and he knows he feels the same way towards her. So he's compelled to say something to piss her off, but she beats him to it, like she normally does.
1. Chapter 1

**New idea! Haha. I'm still working on Denial Never Felt So Good and How Could You Do That, but I thought of this and I just wanted to run with it. Its set in the summer and Blair is at the Hamptons; Marcus is going to be Blair's 'boyfriend' in the first few episodes of season two, so it does contain some spoilers.**

**Enjoy! R&R please (:**

**--**

Blair Waldorf doesn't really understand why she receives a package from Nate's town house while she's vacationing in the Hamptons for the summer, but when it comes, she doesn't hesitate in the least to open it.

She has to dismiss her latest crush/boyfriend beforehand though ('to get drinks' is her excuse), but once Marcus is gone, Blair is ripping through the paper to the object inside.

What she finds surprises even her, and Blair Waldorf is never surprised.

It's the green cashmere sweater she had given him god knows how long ago. After the shock goes away, Blair feels annoyance and confusion. Annoyance because she hates how eager he seems to get rid of the sweater and give it back to her when they break up, as if he can't stand the obvious truth that she loves/loved him. And confusion because she still doesn't understand why Nate doesn't seem to get the fact that the sweater was a gift, and in etiquette classes they said that you were never supposed to give back a gift.

Blair carefully takes the sweater out of the box and runs her dainty fingers along the smooth texture of the cashmere, even though she knows he's worn it a lot, it still feels brand new.

Once Blair looks around to make sure no one can see her in the living room from her yard, she pulls the sweater over her head and revels in the smell of Nate, which still hasn't gone away even though she'll bet her money on it that he's had it washed multiple times so it _doesn't _smell like him anymore and she _won't_ think of him anymore than necessary.

She gets up from the floor with the intention to find a mirror somewhere in the downstairs of her three-story mansion, but becomes sidetracked when she sees a letter that must've fallen out of the sweater when she pulled it out of the box.

When she gets closer to the letter she sees that it's addressed to her, and the handwriting on the front makes it painfully obvious that the letter came from Nate.

_Blair, _

_Here's your sweater, it never should have belonged to me. I know you're going to be pissed that I don't want it anymore, but I don't deserve it, so please, just keep it. I don't want it. It belongs with you. Take care, have a good summer._

_Nate._

The letter pisses her off than the actual sweater being sent back to her, which she really doesn't need. But she guesses that this is Nate's idea of closure, and that fact alone bothers her more than either of her previous annoyances. And suddenly Blair is overcome with the sudden desire to start a fire in one of the many fireplaces in the mansion just to rip the sweater apart piece-by-piece and burn it just to get the satisfaction Nate must have gotten just by sending it back and writing the pathetic letter.

Just then, Blair hears foot steps coming from the direction of the kitchen and she suddenly remembers that she told Marcus to go make them refills of whatever drink they'd been drinking. It must be him. She tries to pull the sweater off her head as quickly as she can so she can hid it before he gets into the room, but he's to fast, and the sweater hole is too small to get off her head in just a second, so it's still half-way on her when he makes his way into the room.

"What's that, sweetheart?" Marcus asks in the adorable British accent Blair thinks she loves more than the actual person producing it.

"Oh, uh." She stutters, she has no idea what lie will sound normal enough for him to let it go. She's pretty sure that the truth: My ex-boyfriend sent the sweater that I gave him with my heart sewn in the sleeve back and I was just trying it on to see how it looked on me, won't fly with him.

"Did you get a present for me?" He asks. Marcus is completely full of himself, and in his mind, he's worthy of anything and everything; he'd think anything you happened to be holding was supposed to be a present for him if you didn't tell him otherwise.

Blair knows this because she constantly has to tell him otherwise, but instead of telling him the truth she thinks about how much more satisfying it would be if Nate happened to see Marcus strolling around town in the sweater that he _didn't_ want. So she lies, but it works, because, of course, Marcus is full of himself.

"Oh, wow, thank you darling." He says, surprised, he's never had a fling where the girl actually got him a present, no matter how much he's bugged her about one. "But, you know, it is the middle of summer, there is no way I'm going to be able to wear this outside."

"What if it gets cold outside?" Blair asks in her most innocent voice. "You might get cold. Or in the city, if you ever came to visit, it gets pretty cold there, plus, I bet it looks so great on you, wouldn't you _love _to show it off to everyone?"

With that she knows she has him, Marcus is always up for anything involving parading around town making people envious of his good looks, all while pretending to be the greatest thing that ever happened to the world; it's his sole talent.

"Well..." He begins, trying to seem modest about 'showing off' (which Blair knows he's not). "If it would mean that much to you, I will gladly take this sweater and make sure everyone in the state of New York sees it and is jealous that they don't have a beautiful girlfriend who gives them lovely green cashmere sweaters."

Although the last part of what he's said hits Blair hard, she's overall glad that she didn't pick a sweet guy to have a fling with; this plan never would have worked.

"Try it on! Please? I want to see how it looks on you!" Blair squeals in her normal excited fashion, this is the only side of her Marcus has ever seen and she plans to keep it that way, he's just a summer fling anyway, and summer flings are all about having fun. (At least that's what it says in the _Vogue _and _Glamour_ issues she's been reading non-stop all summer).

"If it makes you happy," he says as pulls the sweater on over the while polo he's been wearing all day.

Blair's never compared Marcus' size to Nate's, but with Nate's sweater on him, Blair can tell that Marcus is almost as scrawny as they come. The chest area of the sweater is much too big, and his chest doesn't even come close to filling out the allotted room, nor do his arms come close to filling out the sleeves, but she doesn't really care, in just a few short days Marcus will go back to England and he'll be taking the sweater with him, all she has to do is make him want it.

"Keep it, it looks good on you. It makes you look more buff." She tells him in her sweetest voice, the one that always makes her sound like she's tell the truth. Although the last part is a flat out lie; Blair can't help but want him to have it instead of keeping it herself.

"Uh, okay." Marcus says, looking doubtful.

"You know.." Blair begins in a sing-song voice. "There _is_ a party tonight at some big lawyer's house. It would make me soooo happy if we went together and you wore your new sweater."

As soon as the word party is completely off of her lips Marcus makes the conscious decision to go, what better place to show off? Besides, Blair just said he looked buff, and even though he thinks he looks like a wimp in the sweater, he doesn't think that she'd have a reason to lie about it. Blair is pretty straight forward.

"Alright, you know I can't resist you when you plead with me like that." He says in his best hoity-toity voice. He can pull this off, he can go to a party wearing a five sizes too big sweater if she wants it, he's putty in her capable hands.

"Yay!" Blair squeals. She's been planning on going to the party ever since she heard about it, but now she's glad that she won't have to go alone, and even though Marcus looks scrawny in the sweater, she still thinks he looks good, and that's all that matters.

"Ladies first." Marcus says as he gestures to the foyer of the house so he and Blair can start walking over to the party.

"Thank you, sir." Blair replies while she gives him a flirtatious smile and a sexy wink.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey everyone. This is going to end up being a three chapter story, I think. It was originally supposed to be a one-shot, but I wanted to add a twist and have Nate enter the story because the end of the first chapter didn't really seem complete to me. **

**Also, there was a lot of concern on how Marcus was described. I've seen the pictures of the actor playing him as well, but I thought it would be a little bit funnier if Nate would end up seeing Marcus in the sweater and it didn't fit at all. Maybe that's just my weird sense of humor, but if it fit perfectly I don't think the story would be the same, and I liked having Blair trying to convince the doubtful Marcus to keep it even though it didn't look good at all. And another thing, I've read the books, so I know Marcus is a Lord, and I know that he is one in the show, but just for this story he's not, he's just some regular guy from England.**

**So, before I make my author's note longer than the actual story, here's chapter two, enjoy. (:**

**--**

Because you say it don't mean you mean it  
Run away to find a home  
Happy now, but you don't see it  
Run away because you're all alone  
And you'll never know, what could have been.  
And you'll never see, what might have been.

-Hideaway.  
Rock Kills Kid.

--

**Golden Hearted Green Sweaters**

Chapter 2

--

When Nate's mother suddenly (and excitedly) exclaims that they'll be spending the rest of the summer traveling around and staying anywhere else but New York, Nate doesn't really care. Anne Archibald's pretences for the impromptu vacation are 'so they can catch up' but he knows this is just the easiest way for her to say 'I'd rather not be anywhere that might make me think about your idiot father', and that, too, he could care less about, because he knows all the shit that his father is worrying about and running away from is partly his mother's fault anyway.

But when Anne says they'll be starting off they're vacation with a three-week long stay in the house in the Hamptons she's recently bought, Nate freaks.

He knows that Blair is staying in the Hamptons because, well honestly, where else would she be? So he knows that there's probably a 99.9 chance that he'll see her at the fancy lawyer's party being held tonight that his mother is forcing him to attend. Needless to say, he's not excited to see Blair at all.

After sending the sweater back to her, he figured that they'd get the whole summer to spend apart and that Blair would realize that he wasn't such a great catch after all, then, possibly, they could go back to school in the fall and try being just friends, or pretend not to know one another after all, he didn't really care, he just knew they needed time apart, and now he knows that this party is definitely going to eff up his plans for a peaceful, no drama summer.

The whole ride to the Hamptons with his mother is like living in his own personal hell, she asks completely pointless questions, like how school was (even though she could have asked during the two weeks since school's been out) and what Chuck, Serena, and Blair are up to during break (even though a good mom would know that he's really not on speaking terms with the latter).

When they finally make it to the Hamptons house, Nate jumps out of the car as quickly as he can to try to get to his room before his mother can remind him to get ready for the part. He's not quick enough, and his mom knows the house better than he does, so he's still stuck on the grand staircase when she makes her entrance.

"Nate, you know you have that party to get to in less than an hour, and don't think that you're weaseling yourself out of it, mister. This family has been through enough." She says as she pats her hair into place while looking in a mirror. "We have to keep up appearances, so please, try to look your best. And don't cause any trouble while your there."

"Yeah, okay mom." Nate grumbles, and Anne heads out to the back porch so she can take up the view.

Once Nate finally does make it to his temporary room, he sees that his 'party clothes' have already been laid out for him, and his closet and dresser are both fully stocked with beach and clothes clearly bought for social gatherings. He has a feeling his mother has a lot of places to go in order to keep the Archibalds in good graces with the rest of the Upper East Side. He just doesn't want to join in.

According to the clock on Nate's nightstand, the party is in about an hour. Since there is nothing better to do at the Hamptons, he decides to take a nap, allowing himself to forget about all the fucked up things in his life.

--

Nate awakes to his mother frantically shaking him as she grabs a pair of sandals and sunglasses from her son's dresser for him to wear. Nate reluctantly gets up, he'd rather not, but he knows there's no point in arguing with his mother when he's going to be stuck with her for more than likely the whole summer.

"Nathanial! Nathanial Archibald, get up this instant. We only have twenty minutes until the party starts, and I'd like to get there fashionably early, if you don't mind." Anne makes sure he is indeed up and placing his feet on the ground before she leaves the room in a flurry of nerves.

Nate is pretty sure that the phrase is 'fashionably late' but he doesn't feel like bringing it up when he sees his mother leaving the room to go pester someone else about the arrangements of them getting over to the lawyers house.

He throws on the button-up shirt and kaki shorts. And after sliding on the slip-on shoes and grabbing the sunglasses, he leaves without even taking a glance at his appearance. He doesn't care either way, but after years on experience in the business of parties, he knows that however his hair looks is going to be how it stays, there's no point in making a big deal out of it.

--

Once they arrive at the party they are met with many unfriendly glares from people that used to be close friends with the Archibalds. Nate feels self-conscious immediately; he's never liked gossip, but his mother just smiles and waves at anyone looking at her.

"Go on now, mingle, and don't start any problems." She whispers in his ear before walking around the patio in search of the host.

Nate's first stop is the bar because he knows he's going to have to start getting good and drunk before he starts talking to any of the adults that are curious about his future and where he sees himself in ten years, which is what most of them do end up asking after a while.

He scans the party for anyone that might be remotely close to his age and is disappointed when there isn't. None of his other friends from school have to tag along with their mothers to parties to make sure they're family keeps themselves inside the exclusive inner circle. Sometimes he hates how fucked up his family has become.

After about twenty minutes of loitering around the bar, downing drink after drink, Nate spots a petite brunette and a boy with sandy brown hair wearing a sweater that looks way too big for him. They come in through the side, walking right past Nate, so he can't see their faces. The girl looks vaguely familiar, and he knows he's heard that laugh before, but when he gets a closer look at what her boyfriend is wearing when he comes over to get drinks for them it all becomes very clear, and Nate hasn't felt more sober all night.

_She has some nerve, giving some loser by sweater in hopes of me seeing it,_ he thinks as walks to the part of the yard which is farthest away from all the party revelers. But when reality does get a grip on him, he realizes that Blair had no idea that he was going on a vacation, and she had no idea about the new house his mom bought. Nate struggles with his anger as he tries to think of a way to get out of the situation without making him look like a total ass, and it doesn't help that when he looks up he sees his mom walking directly towards him.

"Nathaniel, daaarling," She slurs and he can't help but want to laugh at the irony of her becoming totally drunk when she's trying to make a good impression, he isn't even that bad off, yet. "Nathaniel, I haven't seen you talk to one single little person in allll the times we've been here, mister. You better start chatting it up, people need to know that you're a very good little boy, and we have to get invited to more of these summer parties, they're faaaabulous.

"Yeah, okay mom." Nate mumbles his mother starts wobbling away from him and back to the investment bankers and lawyers that she had been talking to.

A new addition has been made to the group in the time Anne had left them to talk to Nate, so when said new addition sees her walking over he becomes very excited, Nate thinks the guy worked with his dad or something, he knows he's seen him over at the house before.

"Anne Archibald!" He booms, making certain to prove to everyone who thought he was totally wasted is correct.

Everyone at the party turns their heads to face Anne, even Blair. Nate tries to shy away from her piercing brown eyes by becoming suddenly very interested in his drink, but he can feel her stares boring into him, he always can.

Nate looks up in time to see Blair excusing herself from her boyfriend and then she is walking in a bee-line, straight for Nate.

There are no pleasant greetings exchanged, he can tell she's pissed at him, and he knows he feels the same way towards her. So he's compelled to say something to piss her off, but she beats him to it, like she normally does.

"What the fuck are _you_ doing here?" She snaps. "And how long have you been standing over here?"

"I'm enjoying the party." He says simply.

She scoffs. He glares.

"And I've been here long enough to see you throwing yourself at that Chess Club Geek."

"_Marcus_" She enunciates, "Is more of a man then you will ever be, don't be jealous, Nate.

He scoffs. She glares.

"Whatever, if he is more of a man then me, why does _my_ sweater hang off of him like an over-sized t-shirt?"

She laughs. "Oh, you saw that? Good. I wasn't expecting to be able to show you just yet. Marcus and I are going to the city in a few weeks; I was hoping to run into you there. I didn't even make myself look nice tonight. Damn, you really fucked up my plans."

She says this in the same sugary sweet tone that he's come to know very well, although it's never been used on him, just while he's been around. She despises him in this second, which is actually something that Nate never though she would do, and if he wasn't so annoyed at everything going on he might be a little bit surprised. But he just wants to leave the party, and give Blair a hard time before that, so he doesn't really have time to think of how ironic this all is.

"Yes, I saw it. But don't worry about sparing my feelings; it was an ugly sweater anyways. I'm surprised that that Marcus guy would wear it in the first place. You probably had to force it on him, right?"

He knows the 'ugly sweater' comment is laying it on too much, when they were a happy couple he always made sure that she knew he loved it, just like she knew he loved her. Nate takes a second glance at Blair, who is becoming rapidly more infuriated with his presence by the minute, and can't help but want to take it all back and go cuddle with her and watch Breakfast at Tiffany's, but they're both too far into this argument, and he knows from here on out he can't take back anything.

"No, I didn't have to force it on him. He liked it."

"Even though it hangs off of his boney shoulders in the _most_ unfashionable way, right?" He laughs, making fun of her obsession with fashion.

"It looks great. And it you _did_ pay attention to fashion and style and all things important, you would know that that is exactly how they're wearing sweaters in Milan." She's lying right through her teeth, but she knows there's next to no chance that Nate will call her on it. And anyways, she's the one whose mother owns a clothing line; she has the one up on this one.

"Oh? So guys are wearing it like that now too? I thought it was just girls."

"No, guys too, it's a very becoming look." She says a she flips a wisp of chestnut brown hair away from her face.

"Well I'm so glad that's all cleared up."

"So am I."

They glare at each other, neither one sure of what to fight about next, this is the most fighting they've ever done, Nate can't help but think that if they fought like this all the time their relationship would still be going strong, but when they were together they only had disagreements, which are just boring compared to this. He decides he wants more excitement.

"So, I was just wondering, what exactly made you think that you could give my sweater to that guy? You've know him a week, two, max."

"Your letter. It was really sweet, but what did you think I would do with it once you didn't want it anymore? You can't honestly think I'd keep it?"

"Well yeah," he says quietly. "I don't know. You could put it in your closet or something like. Or somewhere you never look. Why'd you give it to that guy? It doesn't even mean anything to him. It's just a sweater."

"Ohh. But it meant _so_ much to you, right? That's why you were constantly trying to give it back to me? Making sure you didn't have to keep up with it anymore." She snaps, this is her favorite argument of the night, he can tell.

"I didn't think it would be right. We weren't together, and you bought it." He pauses, thinking of something else to say." I didn't want to keep it and have to feel guilty for everything when I looked at it."

She lets out an exasperated sigh and rolls her eyes, getting her thoughts together to verbally rip him apart. He wishes he would have stopped talking when he had the chance, he didn't have to say one more sentence; it was his death trap.

"Well, maybe if you would have been a good boyfriend while we were together, you wouldn't be feeling guilty about every single mistake you've made now that we're not." She yells.

He wants to quiet her down, but he knows any attempt he has will fail miserably. So he just lets her keep babbling on and on about how if he would have been a better boyfriend none of this would have happened and how he should have just kept the damn sweater. He's created a conversation like this in his head before, previous to it actually happening, but it just seems to suck more when Blair is actually standing in front of him and saying it, and not the Blair in his mind.

"Why did it have to be like this, Nate?" She says, her voice has lowered considerably, it is now barely over a whisper. She's letting her strong front down, its time to be serious about their problems, it's also a clue to him that she's momentarily done chewing his head off and he is allowed to talk now.

"I don't know." He whispers back. He's not really sure what she's referring to, but this is probably just as good as any answer he would have given.

"I gave Marcus the sweater to make you jealous, to make you feel bad or stupid or whatever about giving it back to me when you I couldn't do anything about it. I convinced him that I bought it for him, and I was working on convincing him to take it home to England because it was a present. I didn't want to keep it either, and it really bothered me when you said that it belonged with me, and that you never deserved it, because you did. So I wanted to make you feel like shit about it, that's why I gave it to him. I didn't want it either. It's yours."

Nate glanced over at Marcus, a guy he didn't even know but seemed connected with just because of the girl standing in front of him. He was just sitting on a lounge chair, soaking in the rays of the sun with the sweater that truly was too big for him; Nate wondered how Blair ever got Marcus to think it did look good on him. But he himself had always trusted Blair's opinion on fashion, maybe this guy did too.

"So do you think there's any chance of getting it back from him?" Nate asks. "I'll take it; I don't want him to have it."

Blair laughs at the irony, Nate is actually fighting for the _sweater_.

"No, I don't think so." She says simply, and it's true. But she, unlike Nate, doesn't mind that Marcus has it. Nate is just taking it so some guy he doesn't know won't have it, but she knows Nate'll feel even guiltier once it is back in his possession; she knows him too well.

"I think he might, once he knows the sentimental value behind it."

Blair rolls her eyes, growing more annoyed with Nate's jealousy than she's ever been, and she knows if he does something stupid and obnoxious to get it back she'll never forgive him.

"I still think you're wrong." Blair smiles.

"Really? Well let's see about that." Nate says, turning in the direction of Marcus. "Hey Marcus, come over here for a minute would you?"

--

**Ah! A cliff hanger! (: haah.**

**So, I'm putting a poll up on my profile for what you think should happen between Nate and Marcus about the sweater. The chapter after this is probably going to be the last one, so you kind of get to help pick out the ending; I'm totally going to wing it, according to your responses on the poll. So please, if you care anything about this story or you just want to vote as a joke, whatever, just please put some kind of response, and also, I changed my stories so people that don't have accounts that are reading them can review, so if you don't have one and you want to say something or have input on the end, leave a review.**

**Thanks (:**


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